Membranous catarrh of the intestines (Colica Mucosa) / by Carl von Noorden.

Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Membranous catarrh of the intestines (Colica Mucosa) / by Carl von Noorden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    dose of opium and the patient fell into a deep and long sleep from which she awoke perfectly free from any distress. The following day a spontaneous evacuation of the bowel contents occurred without any mucus whatever in the motions. The patient was just about to be dismissed when suddenly, a week after her admission to the hospital, a new violent paroxysm of pain appeared, followed within a few hours by the evacuation of about 50 grams of tough strands of mucus and of mucous mem- branes ; this event at once cleared the obscure diag- nosis. On the following day I presented this case in Gerhardt’s clinic, when I was substituting for him, and was enabled on that occasion to demon- strate the possible diagnostic errors that can be made in a case of this kind, in a very striking man- ner, illustrating my exposition at the same time by the presentation of this remarkable example. In addition to the abortive forms of colica mu- cosa that I have mentioned there are certain other forms that are dependent on the individual irri- tability of different subjects. In very sensitive sub- jects the casting off of very recent and compar- atively loose mucus may be the occasion of violent spasms and pain; cases of this character fully merit the name of “ sensibility neurosis.” In other cases again a variety of nervous phenomena may appear but sensitiveness to pain at the same time be ver}^ slight, so that true paroxysms of pain do not ap- pear in these cases even though the intestine is